First off we got all of the craftable (non-procedurally generated) armors finished up and in game. That’s 60 armors so far, not including costumes and clothing.

Every single one of these armors can be dyed a large number of different colours:

We’ve also got planets appearing in space/the night sky now, as you can see in the screenshot above. These planets reflect the solar system you’re currently in.

This week we’ve also got shields working, we’re still tweaking them but at the moment they can be equipped in either your left or right hand (or both if you’re that way inclined). Holding a shield up will highly raise your armor level when projectiles or enemies hit the shield. Holding your shield up also stops your energy from regenerating and blocking attacks costs energy. The next step here is to load in art and special stats so we can get the game generating a large number of unique shields.

We’ve also added a new style of biome, the frozen ocean biome is a cold biome full of deep water and small islands of ice.

We’ve continued to work on the glitch Castles, giving them new layouts, rooms to mix up and decoration.

We’ve also continued to improve the space travel animation and feel, added new weaponry, added new NPC behaviour, fixed some netcode issues that popped up, produced some new tracks for the soundtrack and a whole bunch of smaller bits and pieces.

I know some of you are eager to see this sort of thing appear on the roadmap, we will update it soon, we’re just deeply entrenched in our work at the moment. We’re going to try to update it around once a month.

It will be possible, yes. Tiy has stated, I believe in the IRC Q&A, that there are mods for weapons and tech chips that you will be able to collect along the way in the game. Specifically he mentioned a mod for hammers that creates a “shockwave that travels towards enemies”.

Keep up the awesome work you guys! This game is going to be incredible!

PS – Don’t rush the release, even in spite of all the impatient people. I think this game is tracking to be a game that will have months of play-ability and progression, without getting stagnate, as long as you guys are careful! Anyways, I already got my pre-order in =)

This, I’d rather have a game with a few unintentional bugs here and there on release rather than have you guys throw it out to the crowd raw, only for the inpatients to give you guys a hard time, besides great things are worth waiting for.

Not really. The more time they spend on things like the roadmap, the less time they’re spending on the game. Besides, things generally don’t get done as quickly as most people think they do. Stuff takes time to make.

You guys are the greatest development team in the industry! You genuinely care about your fanbase, and that makes the game THAT much more playable for me. Knowing my money is going to someone who honestly deserves it. Great job, and keep up the good work, like I know you will!

I’m so glad that I know my money went to developers who deserved it, other than some yuppy monopoly owning CEO that doesnt care about the fanbase at all. Thank you guys for making such a great game – I’d pay a full AAA price for this, honestly, Simply because I know you guys deserve it.

Anyway, I love these little dev updates, I don’t mind if you don’t update the road map for months, I love to get these posts. This game and Stardew Valley are going to take over my life, and kind of already have.

This is the post everyone has been waiting for since pre-order. A reminder that the team is still pouring their hearts into the game, some feared the silence meant otherwise. This post just gave me an e-chubby. I shuddered a little then wet myself as well.

I think we have enough information to guess roughly what each race’s combat style will be like:
Human – Jack-of-all-trades. The more gadgets, the better.
Apex – Glass cannons. Flimsy and clumsy, but their futuristic guns give people nightmares.
Glitch – Juggernauts. Hammers and arrows are slow, but they’re still faster than the giants they’ll slay.
Avian – Protectors. No ally will ever perish under their vigilance.
Hylotl – Honorbound. No living man can best them in the ring of honor.
Floran – Druidic. The environment is their friend, not yours.
Novakid – Trigger-happy. Like flies, they’re impossible to catch and hard to avoid.

Hey devs, keep up the good work! So glad to get just a little progress update here and there. I can’t wait for the release, but I know it will be worth the wait. So, take your time guys, and make us a game that is worth ten times the wait! :D

Super excited about this game too. The wait is killing me, but these updates make it worth it! Every time I see what you guys are working on, I know the game is going to be just THAT much more awesome!

Player 1: hey take a look at this shield i found!
player 2: let me see that!
Player 1: PvP mode ENGAGE!
Player 1: *Throws shield*
Player 2: gets his head cut off*
Player 1: what do you think about it? :P

anyone known when the first beta will be out o-o? not trying to rush them just wana know cuz end of the day its a beta so we know ther will be bugs and stuff so releaseing a beta in the next few months sould be fine looking at the roadmap o-o

I’ve been wondering this as well, maybe they’ll consider “beta” what they update the most, and once they’ve gotten almost all of the game complete, no more major updates, they’ll consider it no longer beta.

I should almost think that such would defeat the purpose of a beta. While I would certainly rather have a finished game than a rushed one, I don’t believe that the game will be fully done when the beta is released. Otherwise, it would be a very short-lived beta, in my opinion, as “fully done” implies that the game is ready to be released.

I would simply like to add that I am not trying to offend in any way, as this is not only speculation, but opinion.

This is a very good update. Thanks for sharing the progress you have made recently and letting us know what is being worked on currently. Personally I am really enjoying the look of the sky with multiple planets in the background, very nice job there. Also the Glitch castles are rather awesome.

TIY. THIS IS WANT WE ALL WANT. thank you. PLEASE keep letting us know whats going on! I love to hear that all the stuff the community is concerned about in the game is currently being worked on. Please try to fit into your busy schedule to update us like this every week or few, it really helps the wait!
Thank you for being so dedicated and making sure each feature is as polished as possible!

This… Is simply beautiful. My friends and I are really looking forward to playing this game. It has become one of the highly discussed topics in our section at work. Thank you for the update, and keep up the great work!

I love how you tactifully said we will update it very month. Meaning this game wont be out for a fairly long time. I understand with needing to try and polish the game to our standards. But it really shouldn’t be this hard to know when a release date could be in order. I’d rather that than any update you could provide.

This game is seriously going to be one of THE biggest and well built masterpieces on the gaming market once it’s released. I can feel it in my bones. The developers are very good with communication, and listen to almost all input. A good development team like this is very hard to come by, and coupled with extreme coding skills, it’s obvious to see that this game, and it’s future is going to be absolutely smashing and huge.
Thank you so much, Chucklefish, for your hard work. Keep it up, and don’t lose these great qualities.
*Pixel tier buyer (Wish I could have bought a higher tier)*

Beautiful!
You guys are doing a great work!
I love the new biome (as some can understand by my name) i hope there is a leviathan boss in there ;)
Also i’ve seen the castles on twitch and i love the feel and atmosphere, i think you should put appropriate music to enhance that.
Keep it up guys ;)

Looking great! I, being ex-Navy, am partial to the ocean and haven’t had a lot of games that have really let me do a damn thing with ocean stuff. Hand me some ships, submarines, and underwater knick-knacks and buildings I will most definitely never, ever build on any other planet again. Ever. Maybe. Probably.

man, that once a month thing doesn’t sound too good. i mean, i want the game to be at it’s full potential and all and not to rush it, but that’s the full game i’m talking about. i want to see the beta as soon as possible, because it’s a beta, not a full game, and it’s okay to not be finished. i just don’t want to be waiting until like fucking november and lose my desire to play this game, or the beta is released like weeks before school starts and i never have any time to play it.

Am I the only one terrified of the frozen ocean biome? I know full-well I’m going to dive in, curious of the ocean floor, and be swamped by some massive creature I can’t recognize. This is going to be awesome.

Looking at the amazing progress Starbound has succeeded in building up so far, it makes me wonder why Terraria had fallen as short as it did. Well, while I’m aware the creator only made Terraria as a test base, the same could be said for Minecraft, and that game is still a hit sensation that won’t stop growing.

I hope you guys accomplish your goals, and I wish thee well in to the end and beyond.

Great work guys! My only beef: The frozen ocean’s background should look more like… you know… an ocean… with small icy island chunks in the back. Right now it looks like we just chose the only strip on the planet that is mostly water to platform across instead of 30 feet back where there’s a plethora of solid ground.

Wow. you guys are working tiny little patooties off, and it’s really
showing. This is incredible amounts of work, ignoring even the quality
of that work for a moment. I can’t wait to see the finished product,
this is gearing up to be, quite simply, amazing!

Just finished playing Terraria yesterday with my kids and said to myself “Please tell me these geniuses are going to design a sequel” A few googles later – poof – I was teleported here. I was practically moved to tears by the build demo and amazing randomness of this game that is Starbound. In a word: EPIC. My kids literally commented on the “non-boredom” factor this gem will unveil. At first glance this game puts eve, and minecraft to shame in one stroke. My personal opinion, and no intent on hurting the feelings of those who play the game.

Personally, I am a huge fan of retro style (8bit) gaming with 21st century gaming applications. I feel vindicated in that games do not have to be 3D and laced with cheesy anime to be fun. The game looks simple, practical but loaded with more fun than most blue-ray console shortcomings today. I must commend your team for producing such an amazing game despite the obstacles. I hate it when people leech off of greatness. I am backing and pre-ordering today. I can’t think of any reason why people should not support and be part of this epic chapter in gaming history. Curious to know if Microsoft or Sony have approached you with exclusivity offers. I wouldn’t be suprised after what I saw.

I too will be among the many people anxiuosly waiting for the release of this gem. It will truly be addicting and extensive past time unequaled by anyother game of it genre. Keep up the great work guys. I am cheering for ya!

…this game… every update i see looks better and better… its a game i’ve always wanted to play that never actually existed before…
therefore, seeing this set of updates, i have to interject my professional opinion on the current look and progress of Starbound: